A ragú based around Tony’s sausage from his market down the street comprised of onions, parsnips, green peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, a bit of beef broth, dash of pasta water, oregano, and bay leaf. Served along with the house-made tagliolini that is obviously comprised of flour and eggs, and I add a dash of salt and olive oil. Oregano and pecorino to top.

Wine: G.D. Vajra Langhe Nebbiolo 2015

Notes: Now that I live in Boston, I’m taking advantage of the major cultural staple of being able to walk into some market owned by an elderly Italian person and wish that they were your grandparent. For me, Tony’s Market, appropriately owned by a guy named Tony who is between 80 and 150 years old and is still making the sausages, is just down the street. Anyway, I wanted nothing more than to cook and drink some wine after being up since 3:30am that morning for a major system update for work and this really hit the spot. A comfort meal at it’s finest with a beautiful wine to boot. I originally planned to add a little heat in the form of red pepper flakes and either some clove or nutmeg, but I was on a severe lack of sleep so those accidentally got left out. Next time…

Awhile back I decided I should finally learn how to make pasta and it turned out so well that I don’t think I’ve bought pasta from the store since then. I don’t say this to make you jealous of my pasta snobbery. I do this to encourage you to make your own delicious pasta…and to be jealous of me. Anyway, to dispell these insane rumors going around that I make up new dishes every night, I’m posting this pairing to show that I really do revisit dishes I’ve already made and try them with different wines. Of course, it’s rare that I make something the exact same way twice. That’d just be so boring. This time I herbed up the pasta. Details below!

Spinach and walnut pesto (no I didn’t hand grind it this time, that’s crazy) with browned ground hot italian sausage over sage and marjoram herbed homemade pasta. Heirloom tomato chopped and scattered over the top.

Wine: Produttori del Barbaresco Langhe Nebbiolo 2012

Notes:

Remember when I had a similar dish with a white and it was fantastic? Well this red was fantastic with it too. Please log this into the “More evidence” column as to why there’s no such thing as a perfect pairing. Now this wine obviously carries a lot more tannins than the white I paired previously, but as long as everything is properly salted with the lemon juice in the pesto, those tannins are reduced to supporting players in the dish and the fruit comes forward in the wine. Now with red wines you’ll also get the bonus of matching some of the notes of a good char on the oak with the maillard reaction of browned meat. So is it a different experience than with the white? Yes, of course, but I’ll give you different answers depending on the time of day as to which I prefer at the moment.

Fun Italian food fact: The tomato is not native to Italy…or Europe. It’s native to South America.